USA
Well, I could give you all the boring facts, but this is the other stuff I know....

All of your money is nearly the same colour which is really confusing for a jetlagged tourist, as are the terms penny, nickle, dime & quarter, and right now the US dollar is weaker than the Aussie dollar. The good thing is that it is made with cotton, so it comes out ok if you leave it in your pocket before doing your laundry.

Washington DC is the capital and there are many monuments to past presidents (even those who requested not to have one!) and some stunningly moving war memorials.
Most tourist attractions in DC are free, but you have to get in the line really early in the morning to get a ticket.
The Smithsonian could fill an entire week's holiday on its own and the zoo a part of it, which makes it free to visit too.
Arlington Cemetary was once the home of Robert E Lee.
The Washington Memorial is two different colours because the building of it was interrupted by the Civil War

New York is a large and bustling city and you need to keep your eyes open for rats the size of cats if you are walking around in the dawn hours!
Knowing if you are travelling uptown or downtown is useful as the streets are all numbered, so it is nearly impossible to get lost.
The pretzels from the carts are a cheap way to eat and don't actually taste too bad.
Central Park is beautiful and so peaceful despite being slap-bang in the middle of the city.
The Statue of Liberty is there, but you have to make sure not to travel in one of the last carriages on the train when you are going there because the platform at the stop for Battery Park is really quite short.
The subway / city in general is not as scary as it is portrayed in the media.

Philadelphia is the birthplace of the USA as we know it, was once the capital and has the wierdest museums -- the Ben Franklin Museum for one.
It is also really cheap to travel from NYC -> Philadelphia by greyhound.

The Liberty Trail in Boston is a great way to see the city in one day and the Duck Tour is a lot of fun to do. Plus, there is odd entertainment between quarters at the hocky, like the Scissor, Paper, Rock championships

The Niagara Falls arehuge and freezing cold in early spring! Plus it has not been touristified, unlike the Canadian side!!

San Francisco is hilly and you have to wait forever for a cable car; the bus system is much more convenient, if a little less romantic....
Alcatraz is one scary place.
The seals at Fisherman's Wharf stink.
Coit Tower is a monument to the firefighters after the 1906 earthquake and San Francisco is a a disaster waiting to happen thanks to the city elders throwing out the planning codes in order to rebuild the city quickly. (Glad I only learnt that fact after I'd visited!!)
The area around North Beach with all the strip clubs actually feels like a safer place to stay than central San Francisco... must have something to do with all the bouncers??
China Town is smaller than you would think it is and MOMA is one odd looking building... There is also a Cartoon Art Gallery.
The Golden Gate Bridge is huge, and it is extremely windy out there.

It takes FOREVER to travel from Eugene, Oregon to Canada via Amtrak because passenger train have to give way to goods trains & boats that cause bridges to open....

& last but not least, this is what I learnt from BunTraveler about Oregon
The people there are extremely friendly & welcoming
The coast is beautiful, even a the end of winter.
Eugene is the home of Nike. The University where it was invented has a duck that looks a lot like Donald as its mascot.
The seagulls are HUGE and will try to take off with your ToyVoyager if you are not careful!
Strange green moss hangs off of the trees there.
Small towns have the most beautiful murals painted on the building.

Guess we're going back to Australia?

........................."A bear teaches us that if the heart is true, it doesn't matter much if an ear drops off." -Helen Exley

I have family in Australia. We (in the UK) do not have to worry about a couple of days drive to pick up relatives from the airport (this is what my uncle had to do to collect my cousin!).

Bundaberg produces nice drinks! hic!

Unlike in Austria, there are Kangaroos!

I do not like Castlemaine XXXX !

My family was all safe during the floods, though one of the towns one of them works in was flooded badly.

Australia produces nice red wines.

One of my uni professors wore nylon so that he could go swimming and avoid being stung by the box jellies - he said that if you got stung, you have between 2 and 30 minutes to live if you don't get the antidote.

Australia seems to get a lot of post destined for Austria! Also, a prize from a UK-based magazine was sent to Perth (Scotland) but it ended up going via Perth in Australia.

.........................If you are interested in hosting any of my toys please message me, or post in the appropriate toys looking for hosts thread. [note to self]Organise an itinerary for the toys, and not organise hosts at the last minute[/note to self]

Many great inventors, scientists and philosophers were born in the UK.
e.g. Bell, Darwin, Newton

Stats
The UK has approx. 60million inhabitants. It is a constitutional monarchy(currently Queen Elizabeth II., Windsor), it has no "official language", but most people speak English. There are several languages also accepted as official, or at least being stated as minority language: In Scotland, Gàidhlig, in Northern Ireland Ulster Scots and Gaeilge, in Wales Welsh(Cymraeg) and in Cornwall the Cornish language(Kernewek).
"English" itself has a variety of local dialects, also.
Because many people of different ethnical background live in the UK, there are many other languages spoken, too.

Stats
Wales has approx. 2-3million inhabitants. Official languages are English and Welsh/Cymraeg.

In Wales, you can find the village with the longest name in the world, I think: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwy­rndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch﻿.
The capital,Caerdydd/Cardiff, has a much shorter name, though.

The currency is the Euro and the flag is red, black & yellow.
Is in the centre of Europe.
Has rivers, forests and big cities.
The alphabet has vowels with umlauts over them and a special symbol is used for the ss sound.
German is a very easy language to read (unlike English)
Many of the cities have a medieval feel to them.
There is a cool tower in the Black Forest that was Disney's inspiration for the one in Disneyland.
Many fairy tales originated in Germany thanks to the Brothers Grimm.
Munich's Old Town Hall actually looks newer than the New Town Hall and many tourists hang out in the square outside the new one waiting for the clock to strike the hour.
There is a stone with the devil's footprint in it in the entrance way of one of Munich's churches.
Every year many tourists come to Munich for Oktoberfest and drink too much beer.
There are yearly Christmas markets (that one year I would love to visit)
There is a passion play held in Oberamagau (probably spelt that wrong)
Berlin is the capital and was once divided by a wall.
The US tried to take over the square near Brandenburg Gate for their embassy's security.
It can be very very hot in Berlin during summer.
The rooftop of the Reichstag has great views but feels like a greenhouse in the middle of summer.
Potsdam has a beautiful gardens and palace and played host to a summit in 1945.
The Berlin Dom was built to match Westminster Abbey as a place for the Kaiser to be buried. It wasn't finished before he was forced to abdicate so there are no royals interred in there.
They make great beer, cheese and sausages there.

As Australia's been covered a couple of times, how about just Sydney?

........................."A bear teaches us that if the heart is true, it doesn't matter much if an ear drops off." -Helen Exley

germany is my neighboring state...you have collaterals on cans...angela merkel likes superglue...there are also beautiful churches and cultur..there isnt a compulsory military service..
well...i have to say...i was only at the schwarzwald and bad reichenhall....